-> ''"[[ArcWords An angel touched me. An angel touched me. The river washed me, and now I am clean.]]"''-->-- '''The Other'''

''Otherland'' is an epic PostCyberpunk novel series written by TadWilliams, comprising four volumes: ''City of Golden Shadow'' (1996), ''River of Blue Fire'' (1998), ''Mountain of Black Glass'' (1999), and ''Sea of Silver Light'' (2001).

The story is set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, where corporate entities are as or more powerful than governments and the Internet has become a {{Metaverse}} with its own private virtual reality environments. It follows a [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits disparate group of ordinary people]] whose lives become entwined in the discovery that thousands of children around the world are falling into comas that are seemingly related to their use of the 'Net. As they delve further into these mysteries, they encounter a [[MysteriousInformant secretive figure]] named Sellars who tells them that the comas are connected to a conspiracy of the world's elite known as the Grail Brotherhood. Their apparent goal is to create a computer simulation more powerful than anything that has ever been seen before, called the Grail Network by its creators but Otherland by the few outsiders who know of it. With Sellars' help, they break into this system looking for clues, only to be [[InsideAComputerSystem trapped within the network]], unable to "disconnect" and return to their bodies.

Stumbling from one hostile virtual reality environment to another, chased by agents of the Brotherhood, they discover that the system is becoming distorted in a way that no normal computer ought to be, and that these distortions are centered around a dark entity known as the "Other" that serves as the operating system of the network. People who die in Otherland are [[YourMindMakesItReal dying in real life]]. Back in the physical world, forces are at work hunting down and destroying the enemies of the Brotherhood, and the Brotherhood itself seems to be building its project up to an ultimate conclusion. Even worse, their party has been [[TheMole infiltrated]] by a [[PsychoForHire sociopathic killer]], named Johnny Dread, with a hidden agenda of his own, one that ultimately disrupts the Grail Brotherhood's ceremony and threatens the stability of the entire system. It becomes a race against time to solve the mystery of the Other before they are killed by the network or by Dread himself.

If this sounds like a long synopsis, [[{{Doorstopper}} wait until you read the books themselves]]. TadWilliams prides himself on the interweaving of [[TwoLinesNoWaiting multiple plot threads]] and [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters enormous casts of characters]], and even more on having the reader actually care about what happens to them. This despite the fairly standard CyberPunk setting and rather more pages than necessary spent on the way to each plot point. It's notable for having a fantastically diverse cast and treating them all with respect. The story could also be read as a FantasticAesop about the dangers of seeking {{Immortality}}.

There is a (work in progress) [[Characters.{{Otherland}} Character Sheet]].

----!!These novels provide examples of:* AbusiveParents: The FreudianExcuse of John Dread, whose mother used her string of pimps and boyfriends to try and shape him into a walking nightmare. She was successful.* AchillesInHisTent: In the Trojan War simulation, Orlando is placed in the role of Achilles, while Sam is Patroclus. The AI characters react to Orlando being too sick to fight as if he's stubbornly refusing, exactly as in ''Literature/TheIliad'', and when Sam dons Achilles' armor in unwitting imitation of the myth, Orlando is forced to ride out and rescue her from Hector.* AerithAndBob: More like Renie, Martine, !Xabbu, and t4B. Justified because the characters are drawn from across the world and, in the case of t4B, is essentially going by his online handle. His name's Javier.* AGodAmI:** Quite literal in the case of Jongleur, whose personal simulation casts him as Osiris in a fantastic Egypt, with thousands of virtual worshipers. Some of the Brotherhood call Jongleur on this theatricality, but he points out that through their wealth they have as much power as men who were called kings and gods. [[spoiler: He also privately considers that they may find eternity living in simulations [[WhoWantsToLiveForever tiresome]] if they insist on treating them as fake.]]** Dread gets a severe case of god syndrome after he takes over the system from Jongleur, embarking on an orgiastic campaign of destruction and subjugation in the virtual worlds. As the fourth book progresses, you can see his sanity slipping as his megalomania takes over.* AIIsACrapshoot:** The Other is cast as this, with much speculation from the characters as to why and how it has such bizarre characteristics. Is it good or evil? Insane or misunderstood? The answer ends up subverting the trope, as [[spoiler:the Other is not, in fact, an AI]].** A double subversion occurs post-climax with [[spoiler:Sellars' AI entities]], who are not malicious but merely alien.* TheAlcoholic: Long Joseph's wife died in a fire, driving him to a personal DespairEventHorizon. He drinks to escape the pain, leaving his daughter Renie to be the [[PromotedToParent de facto parent]] in the Sulaweyo household.* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Dulcinea Anwin falls for Dread. There are no words to describe how poorly this works out for her.* AlmostDeadGuy:** Susan Van Bleeck gets [[MentorOccupationalHazard beaten to death]] by the Brotherhood's thugs, but manages to spell out a dying message to Renie with finger typing.** [[spoiler:Calliope Skourous manages to call triple zero after being stabbed in the back by Dread, and Dulcinea Anwin uses what seem to be her final moments to combine the video footage of Dread's serial killings with a powerful virus and upload it into his system. Both are saved, but Dulcie is paralyzed.]]* AmbiguouslyBrown: John Dread is a quarter white, a quarter Australian aborigine, half Filipino. He's accustomed to being mistaken for everything, and it also helps explain his dark charisma. [[note]]The more average a person's appearance (as in averaged over ethnicities), the more attractive they are to everyone.[[/note]]* AnotherMansTerror: Orlando uses VR simulations that play out fatal accidents or other forms of death. There's an urban legend that they're made by monitoring someone's actual death, but this is dismissed as ridiculous as someone would have to be loaded up with expensive recording devices in advance. He [[YourDaysAreNumbered has reason]] to be preoccupied with the experience. * AndIMustScream: Possibly the children in comas, although this is explained later not to be the case. [[spoiler:The Other]], on the other hand, is an ''absolutely literal'' version of this. Also, the karmic FateWorseThanDeath of [[spoiler:John Dread]].* AntiVillain: By the fourth book, you'll have long forgotten that Dulcinea Anwin is an international terrorist and a murderess, as overshadowed (and overwhelmed) as she is by Dread.* AnyoneCanDie: Well, it's definitely not {{Kill Em All}}, but it's occasionally surprising just who gets killed next.* ApocalypticLog: Martine's subvocalized journals are this by intent, if not in effect.* ArcWords: "An angel touched me."* AttendingYourOwnFuneral: Both [[spoiler:Mr. Sellars and Orlando]], after their BrainUploading. It's made weirder by the fact that many of the attendees know their secret.* BadDreams: A rare villainous example with Felix Jongleur, partly to distinguish his motives from Dread's. They are also used to [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadow]] his [[spoiler:KarmicDeath]].* BigBad: Jongleur [[spoiler: at first. In the last book, it turns out to be Dread]]. * BlindSeer: Martine Desroubins. She [[LampshadeHanging points out the irony]] in her journals.* BloodlessCarnage: The rules of how avatars can be damaged vary widely from one VR environment to another. In some, wounds simply shear off body parts with no mess or blood, while in others they are treated with gory realism. There's even a world that works on cartoon physics, complete with AmusingInjuries.* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Other isn't so much evil as it is desperate and inhuman.* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: Felix Jongleur comes from an upbringing in one of these. Combine it with KidsAreCruel to form his FreudianExcuse for being, essentially, the biggest bully in the world. Later, it turns out that the reason he selected Paul Jonas was because he went to the same school, in a mild form of revenge-by-proxy. Paul protests that he was a victim of bullying at Cranleigh as well, but Jongleur is beyond caring.* BrainInAJar: [[spoiler:The Other.]]* BrainUploading: This is the goal of the Grail Brotherhood, in order to cheat the inevitable deaths of their natural bodies. Ironically, [[spoiler:their attempt to do so fails utterly due to the interference of John Dread, while the characters who do end up getting their brains uploaded successfully are both protagonists, Orlando and Mr. Sellars]].* BreakingTheFourthWall: The Nemesis program at one point does a TitleDrop for the fourth book. It's easy to miss if you aren't paying attention.* BuddyCopShow: The subplot involving the Australian police officers who are searching for Dread. It's {{Lampshaded}} constantly by both of them.* BuildingOfAdventure: One of the virtual worlds is a massive house with no "outside", and its inhabitants act baffled when the concept of "outside the House" is brought up.* CaptainObvious: Fredericks enjoys stating the obvious, partly as a deliberate attempt to annoy Orlando.* CatchPhrase: Dread -- "Confident, cocky, lazy, dead." Which of course [[IronicEcho comes back to bite him]].* ChekhovsGun: Dread's {{Snuff Film}}s, which [[spoiler:Dulcie discovers and uses to hide the virus payload that she uploads into Dread's system to distract him at a crucial moment]].* ChekhovsGunman:** Olga Pirovsky's true role in the story is kept mysterious until the climax. All we really know is that she lost her child long ago. [[spoiler:The Other turns out to be her son, who was taken from her at birth]].** Quan Li, who is mentioned in passing by Del Ray as "a Chinese woman named Quan". She's part of the party assembled in Temilún, [[spoiler:and turns out to be [[TheMole the one]] whose sim Dread [[GrandTheftMe hijacked]]]].** Nandi Paradivash gets a brief segment near the end of the first book and later shows up to aid the heroes in the Egypt simulation.** [=T4b=] is revealed at the end as [[spoiler:Kunohara's [[TheMole mole]]]].** The Nemesis program, which ends up being the key to [[spoiler:communicating with Sellars' artificial life entities]].* TheChessmaster: Mr. Sellars has been scheming to get to the bottom of the Grail Brotherhood's plans for decades, not to mention having a secret all his own that doesn't come out until the very end.* CloningBlues: Discussed by the characters, since uploaded personalities are technically identical copies of the deceased originals. This becomes a major plot point for [[spoiler:Paul Jonas, who is himself an uploaded copy, but doesn't realize it until the very end when he's called to make a HeroicSacrifice]].** Jongleur's first immortality plan was to [[spoiler: make a female clone of himself, then let her bear a male clone of himself, and let this clone grow up as he himself has to become a "perfect copy" of him.]] He gave up on it after the grail project got to the final stage.* ColonyDrop: At the end, the Other [[spoiler:crashes the satellite it is housed in into the headquarters of J Corp.]] The chapter in which this occurs is poetically titled "Star Over Louisiana".* CommanderContrarian: Yacoubian is a villainous version within the Brotherhood, constantly naysaying everything Jongleur does.* ConvenientComa: The CallToAdventure of the series is the comas suffered by thousands of children who come into contact with the Other. Also happens to [[spoiler:John Dread]] at the end.* ConvulsiveSeizures: How Eddie responds when Renie asks him what happened at Mr. J's club the night Steven got sick.* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Jongleur of course, but also several of the other members of the Grail Brotherhood.* CorruptPolitician: Half the Brotherhood are heads of state. The rest merely ''own'' heads of state.* TheCracker: Dulcinea Anwin is a professional Black Hat, although she is not nearly as hardened a criminal as she believes herself to be. This causes her to bite off a bit more than she can chew with Dread.* CreatingLife: [[spoiler:Mr. Sellars']] dark secret and his motivation for invading Otherland.* {{Cyberspace}}: An archetypal example.* {{Cyborg}}: Mr. Sellars, who is enhanced not for [[HollywoodCyborg speed or strength]] but to be a living computer, able to connect to the 'Net with no external hardware. In a rare realistic treatment, this combined with the physical trauma he suffered earlier in his life leaves him a barely functional cripple.* DeathByIrony: The fate of nearly all the members of the Grail Brotherhood. (See trope page for details.)* DeathByLookingUp: In the climax, most of the characters are too busy to notice the impending ColonyDrop until it's far too late to stop it. [[spoiler:[[ThoseTwoBadGuys Finney and Mudd]] don't notice until Olga points it out, at which point they uselessly attempt to flee. Jongleur sees it on his security feed and attempts to start the Grail process in order to survive, but is instead "eaten" by the Other.]]* DeepImmersionGaming:** In VR game worlds like the Middle Kingdom, dedicated players may spend days online and get so deep in-character that they seem to have two complete lives.** Otherland takes this to its logical conclusion, as its creators plan to create permanent virtual copies of themselves to live eternally in the network's fantastic worlds. Once the system starts closing down in preparation for their ceremony, anyone still inside is trapped, unable to disconnect, and due to the Other's strange BrownNote effects, dying online kills their real bodies.* DigitalAvatar: A significant part of the first book's JustifiedTutorial includes a description of how avatars work on the 'Net and the process of creating one. The characters' avatars are described in great detai: Orlando's muscular Thargor, the flamboyant sims of the very rich, the esoteric and fanciful sims of the Treehouse inhabitants, the functional sim that Renie uses, even the nonexistent sim of Martine Desroubins.* DoAndroidsDream: ** The only AI that has its perspective explored is [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial explicitly stated as not having emotions or intuition]], but they are described [[TranslationConvention to explain the logic of the program's actions]].** The unorthodox effects of the Other, including its intrusion into the dreams of people within the network and its own semi-aware, possibly dreamlike existence, are a major clue to its true nature.* DisabilitySuperpower: Martine is blind in the real world, but has an incredible method of sensing things online, allowing her to see raw data and pinpoint Dread when in disguise.* {{Doorstopper}}: TadWilliams continues in the tradition started with ''Literature/MemorySorrowAndThorn''.* TheDragon: Dread acts as Jongleur's pet hunting dog, assassinating his enemies and otherwise running errands that he's too busy to do himself. Jongleur hoped at one point to make Dread his protege and even bring him into his inner circle, but he proves too unstable to control. Throughout the story, Dread is the proximate physical threat to the protagonists' well-being, and his defeat is what frees them to finally hunt down the Grail Brotherhood. * DragonWithAnAgenda: Dread is mostly content to be Jongleur's attack dog, but chafes at his master's absolute control, which is enforced by pain. But Dread is the master of pain, and his submission a ruse. He constantly probes and pushes, looking for a way to turn the tables. He finds it in Otherland, as his peculiar psychic power allows him to bypass the security protocols surrounding the Other and take control of it.* DreamApocalypse: Well, VR apocalypse. There's a fair amount of speculation by the characters as to whether the inhabitants of the simulation are truly alive, and hence whether destroying the simulation would be murder. [[spoiler:Fortunately, there's a way to {{Save Both Worlds}}.]]* DrivenToSuicide: The Other had already been tortured and manipulated for decades, but it isn't until Dread gets hold of the system that it gives up all hope of saving anything of itself and chooses to [[spoiler:escape its own horrifying existence and take as many of its tormentors with it as possible on the way.]]* DrivingQuestion: One per plotline in the first book. From the second book on, discovering the true nature of the Other becomes this.* {{Eagleland}}: The cast is amazingly multinational, and the Americans in it are not treated particularly specially, but Yacoubian embodies just about every negative stereotype possible: brash, obnoxious, impatient, and impulsive.* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: The Other, strangely enough, seems to be playing this sort of game, subtly manipulating everything that occurs within the network to make things play out like the fairy tales that it imagines itself to be in, complete with heroes fighting a desperate struggle against hopeless odds to free it from its imprisonment.]] Then Dread comes along and makes the trope play out for real.* EmergencyTransformation: Via BrainUploading, for some characters whose physical bodies die.* EncyclopediaExposita: Sort of. Each chapter is prefaced with a short passage from a subscription news/entertainment feed, used as a FramingDevice to establish a context for the larger world that the story takes place in. For example, the deaths of major characters may get mentioned in a subsequent chapter. The articles get increasingly creepy as the plot advances.* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: A psychic predicts the world will be destroyed. After the good guys win, she comes out of seclusion saying her prediction came true. A dense reporter says, "Because the world is ending and beginning again every day?" to the psychic's disgust. It's because [[spoiler: the true depth and realness of Otherland died with the Other, leaving only the world's largest and most sophisticated computer simulation.]]* EnemyMine: Jongleur and the protagonists are forced to work together after he loses control of the system to Dread.* EternalRecurrence: Many of the virtual worlds in Otherland "reset" once they reach a programmed endpoint. This is appropriate, as they are intended to simulate games.* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: The Other is gratified to experience a mother's unconditional love. John Dread explicitly does not. One of his first victims was an expy of his mother.* EveryoneMeetsEveryone: Subverted -- it looks like this is going to happen at the end of the first book, but then things go very badly wrong, and a whole slew of new characters get introduced in the second book.* EvilerThanThou: Jongleur loses control of his PsychoForHire, John Dread, as the latter discovers that his [[{{Technopath}} psychic power]] allows him to bypass the security systems of Otherland. The [[AGodAmI havoc that results]] makes Jongleur's dreams of world domination look petty by comparison, and leads to a StrangeBedfellows situation in the fourth book.* EvilIsDeathlyCold: Whenever anyone confronts the Other online, they experience a sensation of paralyzing, killing cold. This turns out to be a [[spoiler:psychic echo of the Other's physical prison]].* EvilOldFolks: Jongleur in particular, but also most of the Grail Brotherhood.* EvilTowerOfOminousness: It doesn't get much more ominous than the mile-high corporate tower of J Corp, which houses Jongleur's still-living body as well as his half of the Otherland technology.* ExpositionFairy: Beezle, in-story, for Orlando. Everybody gets one in the Trojan War simulation, since it's programmed to help them play their parts accurately.* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Over and over. In particular, some of the deaths in the Western simulation are horrifying.* FanDisservice: In the virtual club that Renie and Xabbu visit during their investigation, there is a "stripper", but rather than taking off her clothes, she peels off her ''skin''.* FantasticDrug: Charge.* TheFarmerAndTheViper: Dulcinea Anwin, who falls in love with Dread and tries to civilize him. For his part, he considers her an amusing toy that he keeps around because she's useful. [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness When that's over, though]]... [[spoiler:Fortunately, she realizes the danger ''before'' Dread tries to kill her.]]* FetusTerrible: [[spoiler:Olga Pirofsky's]] unborn child is a mutant -- powerfully telepathic. In the delivery room, his psychic emanations are sufficient to kill attending medical personnel before he can be sedated. Jongleur's agents are aware of the child's potential and arrange to snatch him away, [[spoiler:telling Olga only that he died.]]* FictionalVideoGame: Appropriately for a story about future Internet technology, games are abundant, especially full immersion VR games. The Middle Kingdom is the premier example, and several of the Otherland simulations are set up this way.* FoeTossingCharge: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when Orlando attempts to rescue Sam in the Trojan War simulation. He rides out like an Olympian hero to confront Hector, [[spoiler:but is too ill to fight effectively and is defeated]].* FreudianExcuse: John Dread was raised by his abusive, drug-addicted mother with the intention of making him evil. It worked. Felix Jongleur grew up in a BoardingSchoolOfHorrors and took that experience with him into the business world, becoming the biggest bully in the world.* TheFundamentalist: The Circle has shades of this.* FutureSlang: And lots of it.* GenderBender: In Otherland you really can be whoever you want to be.** In the Trojan War simulation, characters' avatars are automatically chosen by the system unless they know how to override them, resulting in some [[HilarityEnsues hilarity]].-->'''Renie:''' I have a ''penis''.* GeneralRipper: General Yacoubian apparently considers invading Third World countries to be a casual exercise of power that he might do any week, just ForTheEvulz.* GeniusBonus: The Real Killer, in a slightly meta in-universe example. So called because he writes "REAL" on something in his victim's blood. It's actually a punny joke at his employer's expense. In French, "sang réal" means "royal blood" and was a medieval pun for "san graal", which, in Old French, meant "Holy Grail" ([[DontExplainTheJoke the cup that caught the blood of Christ]]), which of course grants immortality in myth. Jongleur found it a tasteless joke.* GenreSavvy: Since most of the virtual reality worlds of Otherland are based on actual fiction, the characters spend time plotting how to take advantage of their "rules". Martine is also unusually GenreSavvy all by herself, which ends up getting a subtle justification in that the Other seems to believe in fairy tales (one in particular) and is deliberately shaping events along those lines.* {{GIRL}}: Inverted: Sam pretends to be a boy online so she can be just "one of the guys" and not get singled out for her sex.* GrandTheftMe: Dread plays TheMole in the protagonists' party by hijacking the sim of one of their initial members, starting a game of WhackAMole once they figure out that he's infiltrated them. The poor sod he does it to is executed off screen.* HeroicResolve: Orlando lives on this trope. Of course, he's got a [[LittlestCancerPatient terminal disease]], so he can be forgive for long stretches of weakness punctuated by a few moments of sheer {{Bad Ass}}ery.* HiddenVillain: Jongleur in book one.* HotBlooded: Both Renie and Florimel, which sets them against each other.* HumanityEnsues: [[spoiler:The Nemesis program gets released into the simulation to hunt down Paul Jonas. It can mimic anything nearby--and when it mimics a recently deceased character, it begins to take on human thought processes. This turns out to be the key to communicating with Sellars' artificial life entities.]]* IAmNotWeasel: A slight RunningGag involves Orlando and Fredericks referring to cartoon tortoises as turtles and getting corrected by said tortoises.* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Sellars' justification for all his actions, except the CreatingLife bit - that was from boredom.* ImmortalitySeeker: The Grail Brotherhood all seek virtual immortality to escape the inevitable deaths of their natural bodies.* IncredibleShrinkingMan: One of the first simulations the protagonists enter is run by an entomologist who configures it so that the human visitors are tiny in comparison with the insects. He is also openly disdainful of the "survival" of the people in question, figuring that if they get eaten (and thus kicked out of the simulation), it's their problem. After Dread takes over, the insects turn into something far worse.* InsideAComputerSystem: Otherland is a network composed of virtual reality environments. There are also "hidden" virtual worlds inside it -- some representing the operating system and some created by the operating system.* InstantAIJustAddWater: As noted under AIIsACrapshoot, the question of how such a sophisticated (and quirky) AI as the Other came to be forms a major DrivingQuestion of the story.* JerkassFacade: Sweet William and t4B, for different reasons. Sweet William is intensely private (and is also TheAtoner) and actively rebuffs any attempt to establish a friendship; t4B is in fact a teenager and also has a secret affiliation. Both are actually decent people.* JigsawPuzzlePlot: ''City of Golden Shadow'' puts all of the characters through the ordeal of finding their own way to Otherland through Sellars' clues, assembling them like a puzzle to which none have all the pieces. Once they arrive in Temilún, it seems as if the pieces will be put together, but Dread's assault on their hosts breaks it up.* JustBetweenYouAndMe: Jongleur and Paul Jonas share a moment of truth in ''Sea of Silver Light'', after the latter manages to recover his memories. Subverted, however, because Jongleur knows what Jonas, at that point, does not: [[spoiler:he's talking to a [[BrainUploading brain-uploaded]] [[CloningBlues clone]], not the real Jonas]].* JustifiedTutorial: A large amount of the first book is spent on Renie showing !Xabbu how to navigate in and program the 'Net, cluing readers in on the same.* KarmicDeath: Most of the villains go out in an ironic and/or karmic way.** Jongleur dies [[spoiler:when the Other blows up his corporate headquarters with him inside it ... after [[MindRape mind raping]] him.]]** Dread's fate, while not technically death, is most certainly karmic: [[spoiler:trapped in a comatose dreamscape, being endlessly pursued by the ghosts of his victims]].* KissMeIAmVirtual: Obviously, in a VR world, virtual sex is cheap and easy to come by. Due to the hyperrealistic nature of Otherland, however, it can be really, really lifelike.** Also, one of the methods used for long-term VR requires the user to be fully immersed in a tank of goop and hooked up to a life-support system. The goop hardens and softens to simulate touching things--and this ''is'' abused.* KudzuPlot: So these guys want to become immortal, except this guy just wants to wreak havoc, but they think they have him under control. And ''these'' guys want to destroy it all. And then there's Sellars, who wants who-knows-what, and the main characters, who each have personal reasons for getting involved, except for {{The Mole}}. And then there's something called "Sprootie"...* LampshadeHanging: Enough that it deserves its own entry on this page. Williams hangs lampshades on everything from the KudzuPlot to the [[LordOfTheRings number of characters in the original group]].** And even on the fairy-tale nature of the story everyone is in.* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Paul Jonas suffers from this. Justified as [[spoiler:he was implanted in the Grail Network as a form of punishment and intentionally stripped of his memory in the process]].* LastOfHisKind: !Xabbu believes he is one of, if not the last Bushman.* LesbianCop: Calliope Skouros.* LiteralMetaphor: When told that the Other put children into comas because [[spoiler: he wanted to make friends, the character replied "And he played too rough?" This is when we learn that, no, he wanted to ''make'' friends, the inhabitants of his little fairy tale village, and was studying children to learn how they work.]]* LittleHeroBigWar: Most of the protagonists play this role, as, let's face it, they are ordinary citizens thrown into a massive web of conspiracy.* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters* MagicalNativeAmerican: !Xabbu is an African Bushman who was raised partly in the industrialized world; his "natural wisdom" plays a major role in solving some of Otherland's mysteries.* ManChild: The Other is like this in a sense -- its understanding of the world is very childlike, even though it's been around in some form for at least twenty years. More traditionally, Long Joseph Sulaweyo is extremely petulant and childish in his behavior patterns as an emotional defense against pain.* ManInTheMachine: Jongleur, sans robotic body. He doesn't need one, with all of Otherland to rule.* MeaningfulName: John "More Dread" Wulgaru, on at least three separate levels:** His mother, an Australian aborigine, gave her son the surname "Wulgaru" (a monster from their mythology) because she wanted to create a monster that would exact her revenge on the rest of the world.** He chose the name "Dread" because it would be a [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Name To Run Away From Really Fast]].** After Felix Jongleur hired him, John learned that Jongleur had a bit of a King Arthur theme going on, what with the group behind Otherland calling themselves "The ''Grail'' Brotherhood" and all. So, to screw with Jongleur, he started to call himself "More Dread" - as in Mordred, [[TheStarscream the knight who betrays King Arthur and starts a civil war]].* MediumAwareness: Played with in that the real people who are online in Otherland are aware that they are in a simulated world, the inhabitants of that world are not. This is different from the 'Net as a whole where AIs ("Puppets") are required to identify themselves to real people ("Citizens") if asked. Thus, the protagonists get some odd looks from Otherland's inhabitants when they attempt to work with the mechanical rules of the network rather than the internal logic of each simulation.* MentorOccupationalHazard: Renie's mentor Susan gets beaten to death within days of being sought out for help. Singh, the wizened hacker that helps the team get into Otherland, is killed by the security system. * TheMetaverse: Arguably one of the more nuanced and well-researched examples.* MindRape: What the Other does to people [[spoiler:by accident]].* MisanthropeSupreme: Dread again.* MissionFromGod: The Circle, out to destroy Otherland and punish its makers for their egomania.* ModernMayincatecEmpire: Temilún.* MommyIssues: Dread, just a wee tad.* MonsterClown: Mr. Jingo -- well, he's not technically a clown, but he sure does fit the trope.* MoodWhiplash: The jarring post-climax revelation regarding [[spoiler:Sellars' artificial life entities]].* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:Sweet William, an 80-year old retiree, goes to Otherland after discovering that a person he had solicited for sex online is in fact 12 years old and is now in a coma. He wants to help her in order to apologize.]]* MysteriousInformant: Sellars plays this role throughout most of the first novel, hiding clues to Otherland in out of the way places on the 'Net that he hopes the protagonists will stumble upon. Justified in that he's trying to recruit people to confront a multinational conspiracy that is well known for "disappearing" anyone who crosses them.* NailedToTheWagon: Long Joseph in the decommissioned military base. * NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Dread.* NebulousCriminalConspiracy: The Grail Brotherhood, a group of financiers, corporate executives, drug lords, heads of state, and military leaders who unite for a single purpose: to cheat death.* NeoAfrica: The PostCyberpunk applies to everywhere in the world, but notable is that Renie and !Xabbu are from Durban, South Africa.* NightmareFetishist: Orlando has a thing for death simulations.* TheObiWan: Sellars plays this role to a certain extent, although there are two inversions: first, he's a crippled old man who just happens to be a incredible hacker, and second, [[spoiler:he doesn't ''technically'' die]].* OmnicidalManiac: Dread, almost literally. He's also a rare case of a {{Psycho For Hire}} who's also a {{Serial Killer}}, taking a particular delight in slaughtering beautiful women in fetishistic ways. It's probably redundant to add that he's in it {{For The Evulz}}.* OnlineAlias: T4b. And Sweet William, though there's a chance the "William" part is his real name. Also, Renie sets up convincing false identities for herself and !Xabbu.* OntologicalMystery: Paul Jonas' chapters read like this for most of the story, as he's amnesiac and trapped in a bizarre world that he doesn't even realize at first is a simulation.* OppositeSexClone: [[spoiler: Jongleur's daughter is one of these.]] Thus explaining the StrongFamilyResemblance. * PlacebotinumEffect: The characters comment on how Otherland's experience is "too real" for any current computer technology to produce, including having no apparent latency, which should be impossible, not to mention the BrownNote effects. The Other's true nature reveals why this is the case: [[spoiler:its psychic influence is creating an illusion of hyper-reality in users' minds]].* PointDefenseless: At the climax, it turns out that the J Corp tower, in addition to having a private military force, is equipped with surface-to-air missiles. [[spoiler:They prove woefully inadequate against [[DeathFromAbove what finally comes knocking]].]]* PostCyberPunk* PoweredByAForsakenChild: [[spoiler:Literally. The Other is in fact a psychically gifted boy ([[TorturedMonster Or he used to be]]), deep-frozen in outer space.]]** [[spoiler: In order to increase its "capacity", the Brotherhood harvested [[HumanResources unborn fetal brains]] and stuck them in with the Other.]]* PromotionToParent: Renie is Stephen's de facto mother after their mother died in a fire and their father became a drunk.* PsychicPowers: Both Dread and [[spoiler:the Other]].* PsychoPrototype: The secret military program that Mr. Sellars came from was wrecked by one of these.* ThePunishment: After [[spoiler:his [[OppositeSexClone "daughter"'s]] death in an accident]], Jongleur has Paul Jonas rendered unconscious and placed into his WorldWarI simulation as a nameless soldier in an endless cycle of trench warfare and death. This lasts for ''years''.* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]].* RedHerringMole: [[spoiler:Florimel, later Sweet William.]]* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: People knew Jongleur was old, but his memories go back as far as the World Wars, making him at least 180 years old.* RelationshipResetButton: Paul and Martine, due to Paul's status as [[spoiler:an [[BrainUploading uploaded personality]].]]* ReleasedToElsewhere: It is unclear whether the Other truly understands the meaning of death, but the fairy tale that [[spoiler:Martine shared with it as a child]] and that forms the basis of its perception of its own existence ends with the lost boy being "set free" of his imprisonment by going to heaven. This is a not-very-subtle {{Foreshadowing}} of the climax of the story.* TheReveal: There are quite a few, but [[spoiler: finding out that the Other is a ''human being'' - namely, Olga's lost son - probably takes the cake.]]* RunningGag: Sprootie and ''How to Kill Your Teacher'' are both running gags in the "Net feed news" FramingDevice.* SamusIsAGirl: Orlando is surprised to learn that his long-time online RPG buddy [[GenderBlenderName Sam]] Fredericks is actually Salome Fredericks.* SealedEvilInACan: A literal, if not figurative example of this occurs with both Felix Jongleur and [[spoiler:the Other]].* SendInTheClones: Not only are there versions of Finney and Mudd in almost every part of Otherland, [[spoiler:Dread makes thousands of virtual copies of himself for the express purpose of destroying everything in sight.]]* ShaggyDogStory: !Xabbu shares Bushmen myths, and others [[DiscussedTrope point out]] that they have endings that don't relate to the beginning. Shaggy dog story within a story? ** A fair amount of the falling action and denouement are concerned with [[spoiler:the new artificial life that Sellars created]], a plot point that seems jarringly irrelevant after everything that's come before, and is almost certainly intentional.* ShoutOut: Multiple** ''Film/BladeRunner'': In The River of Blue Fire, the dying Scarecrow quite intentionally paraphrases the "tears in the rain" speech, calling it a "good ending speech"** ''Franchise/StarTrek'': In The City of Golden Shadow: When Orlando and Sam are brought to the Treehouse, their guide refers to the environment as "It's the net, but not as we know it" then lampshades it as a very old joke - referring to the song Star Trekkin by the Firm.* SnuffFilm: Dread likes to record his "kills" on camera for his own private amusement. This ends up being a ChekhovsGun.* TheStarscream: Ptah/Wells is this in to Jongleur in the Grail Brotherhood. Dread is one too, but he's smart enough to wait on his betrayal until he's in a position of genuine power. * SugarApocalypse: ''Twice''. First there's the battle in the cartoon-based world, then there's [[spoiler:Dread's reign of mayhem]], culminating at the battle of the Well when the Other's UglyCute fairy-tale creatures get slaughtered.* StayingAlive: [[spoiler:Orlando, who is brought back to life in a virtual avatar by the Other and then given his own BigDamnHeroes moment when he fights and defeats the avatars of Mudd and Finney at the Well]]. * TakingYouWithMe: The Other's plan to end its torment culminates in this. (See DeathFromAbove.)* TalkingThroughTechnique: Subverted. Mr. Sellars' chess game is just a chess game. It is, however, a front for his other covert activities.* TapOnTheHead: Given how many times the protagonists get knocked unconscious at major plot transitions, it's a good thing they're in a computer system where their ''real'' brains aren't being turned to mush.* {{Technopath}}: John Dread's "twist"; a form of telekinesis that works at the level of individual electrons and allows him to manipulate computer systems.* TeamMom: Renie, but not without a great deal of resentment from the others, who are (mostly) not kids.* TheirFirstTime: Renie and !Xabbu have three: one [[MentalAffair purely mental]], one virtual, and one real.* ThemeNaming: The book titles all reference a key virtual environment from the book that the characters must navigate to or within.* ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet: Sam's ostensible justification for hiding behind a masculine online identity.* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Jongleur's two minions, Finney and Mudd, who gleefully torture both Paul Jonas and Avialle and whose online personas wreak havoc in Otherland.* TomatoInTheMirror: Paul Jonas at first doesn't even realize he's in a computer simulation. When he does understand this, he begins searching for a way to escape, not realizing until the very end that [[spoiler:the reason he's wandering around so freely is because he was already [[BrainUploading uploaded]], and he's the copy. This drives him over the DespairEventHorizon, but ironically gives him the [[HeroicResolve resolve]] to perform a final HeroicSacrifice to delay Dread long enough for the Other to shut down the system]].* TomboyishName: In an inversion, "Sam" (''Salome'') Fredericks gave herself the apparently masculine name in order to disguise her gender from her online friends. Orlando is shocked to discover the truth.* TortureTechnician: Dread implies that he's one of these, at least as far as his [[SerialKiller "hobbies"]] go. He is most certainly an expert at psychological torture. ** Jongleur also demonstrates some proficiency, subjecting two of his employees to their personal worst nightmares -- drowning and needles. * TranslatorMicrobes: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that the 'Net has been programmed to translate languages on the fly and this goes hand in hand with the built-in voice recognition. It doesn't work with all languages, as Renie discovers from !Xabbu's Bushman dialect, and it has some [[TranslateTheLoanwordsToo peculiarities with certain loanwords]].* TranslateTheLoanwordsToo: When Florimel, a native German speaker, says "doppelganger", which is a German loanword, the 'Net's translation software insists on rendering it as "double-goer" in English.* TrulySingleParent: Jongleur's first {{Immortality}} scheme, which would also be fair to call "Truly Single ''Grand''parent".* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: The Other, of course -- both subtly, by coopting the network resources to create its "playthings"; and overtly, by manipulating the protagonists to free it from its virtual prison.* UglyCute: In-universe example -- the inhabitants of the world that the Other creates for itself are a mishmash of fairy tale creatures, often taken literally out of context, such as dwarves that consist of a head on top of a pair of legs.* UnusualUserInterface: Where to start? The VR environments of the 'Net can be accessed in a variety of ways, from the simple to the absurdly complex: a plain old flat screen, 3D goggles (both with "squeezers" for input), a mechanical framework that you strap into, full-body immersion in a pressure-sensitive gel, and for the rich, a direct neural implant. Within the 'Net, a combination of hand gestures and speech form the "programming" language. And some users go so far as to have custom interfaces designed for them, whether out of personal idiosyncracies or impatience.* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: Olga Pirovsky has one while infiltrating J Corp.* VillainousCrossdresser: [[spoiler:Dread poses as a female member of the group for a very long time. None of his true personality breaks out.]]* TheWatson: !Xabbu, whose ignorance of the 'Net provides plenty of opportunity for Renie to [[JustifiedTutorial explain how it works.]] Sam, sometimes. On the villains' side, Yacoubian and Dedoblanco function as this for the Brotherhood.* WetwareCPU: [[spoiler:The Other]].* WhackAMole: When Dread infiltrates the group. It's notable that the viewpoint character changes often between the various parties, but never to any of the suspects, to keep the suspense up as long as possible.* WhamEpisode: When [[spoiler:Orlando finally dies]]. We were all expecting it, but still ... Also a TearJerker. TheReveal of the Other's true nature might also count.* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: Played straight in-universe. Felix Jongleur earned much of his vast fortune from "Uncle Jingle", a grinning character in his children's show (and, of course, all associated products). The image of Uncle Jingle is inspired by "Mr. Jingo", a character Jongleur encountered in his youth and who became his personal terror as an AnthropomorphicPersonification of Death.* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: There's an ongoing debate in the story over the morality of killing virtual people who seem just as lifelike as real humans -- they have memories, lives, hopes, and fears. While most of the main characters want to prevent further comas, the Circle intends to destroy the entire simulation as an ungodly abomination, and doesn't particularly care what happens to those simulated. [[spoiler:They're talked out of it.]]** Earlier in the series, Azador talks about how they shouldn't feel any qualms about having sex with puppets, as they aren't real. He even calls it masturbation as opposed to intercourse. [[spoiler:Ironically, he is an imperfect copy and not an actual Citizen himself.]]* WhatTheHellHero: When Sellars' manipulation of the kindergarten-age Christabel Sorensen is discovered by her parents, they ''really'' let him have it.* WinToExit: When the protagonists come to learn that it is [[spoiler: the Other that is keeping them from exiting the VR environments of Otherland]], they realize that they need to destroy or "rescue" it in order to get free.* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: The Other doesn't care how many people it kills as long as it [[spoiler:ends its own suffering and [[TakingYouWithMe takes Jongleur with it.]]]]* YouCanBarelyStand: Orlando, much of the time, due to his illness.* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: The Other appears this way online; in fact, the simulation devotes a lot of effort to forcing it into a semi-rational appearance to prevent the people who work with it from going crazy. [[GoMadFromTheRevelation It doesn't entirely work]].* YourMindMakesItReal: One of the central mysteries of the series is why this trope seems to be in effect inside the Otherland network: unlike in the "normal" 'net, a person whose Otherland avatar is killed also dies in the real world. BrownNote effects are known to exist, but they require especially high-quality virtual reality interfaces, and yet the Otherland network somehow manages to deliver sensations (such as scents) that the users' equipment is literally not capable of producing, in addition to keeping them trapped online even when they ought to be able to simply remove their VR gear. [[spoiler: The effect is caused by The Other's PsychicPowers, and was not an intentional feature of Otherland.]]** At one point a character questions whether the computer is even capable of killing them by simulating freezing to death. Another points out that by the same logic, they shouldn't die from getting dismembered by a giant scorpion, but they still ran for dear life.